Physical activity plays an important role in the maintenance of health, and it is especially important during childhood. However, the lack of information about differences in physical activity practice and sports preferences of children considering gender differences can result in non-effective policies that enhance inequalities between sexes.
Trang 1R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Open Access
Physical activity practice and sports
preferences in a group of Spanish
schoolchildren depending on sex and
parental care: a gender perspective
África Peral-Suárez1* , Esther Cuadrado-Soto1, José Miguel Perea2,3, Beatriz Navia1,3, Ana M López-Sobaler1,3and Rosa M Ortega1,3
Abstract
Background: Physical activity plays an important role in the maintenance of health, and it is especially important during childhood However, the lack of information about differences in physical activity practice and sports
preferences of children considering gender differences can result in non-effective policies that enhance inequalities between sexes The aim of this study is to identify the sports preferences of Spanish schoolchildren and their physical activity practice behaviors depending on their sex and their parental care, analyzing the possible
differences from a gender perspective
Method: Three hundred sixty-four Spanish schoolchildren (179 girls, 185 boys) participated in this cross-sectional study A daily physical activity questionnaire was used to evaluate physical activity level (PAL), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sports preferences and a socio-health questionnaire were used to collect data about parental care Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS and applying Student’s T-test for normal variables, Mann-Whitney U-test for non-parametrical variables, and chi-square (χ2) test for categorical variables Subsequently, odds ratios were used to analyze associations between the physical activity practice of the children and parental care
Results: PAL and time spent in MVPA was significantly lower for girls compared to boys (1.44 ± 0.07 vs 1.46 ± 0.07,
p < 0.001 and 0.74 ± 0.40 h/day vs 0.90 ± 0.45 h/day; p < 0.001, respectively) Dancing, rhythmic gymnastics, skating, and water sports were practiced more by girls, while football, wrestling sports, handball, and racket sports were practiced more by boys (p < 0.05) Children cared for by their fathers had higher odds for physical activity practice (OR = 1.995 (1.202–3.310), p = 0.008)
Conclusion: Physical activity among girls was less frequent and less intense Girls opted for individual sports with artistic connotations, while boys often practiced more team contact sports Furthermore, children are more
physically actives when their father is in charge of them
Keywords: Physical activity, Sport preferences, Schoolchildren, Sex differences, Gender, Parental influence
© The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the
* Correspondence: africper@ucm.es
1 Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy at
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Trang 2Regular physical activity has numerous benefits for both
physical and mental health, including the prevention of
be-ing overweight or obese, and the risk of chronic diseases
(cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, etc.), as well as reduced
levels of stress and anxiety, impacting on psychological
wellbeing and quality of life [1,2] Furthermore, in the case
of schoolchildren, physical activity has been positively
asso-ciated with academic performance [3] Physical inactivity is
related to greater risk of diseases and various physiological
and psychological problems, being identified as the fourth
highest risk factor for mortality worldwide [1,4]
In this context, physical activity and sports practice
tend to be different between boys and girls, being lower
in the case of girls, both in terms of frequency and
in-tensity, independent of their level of education [5,6]
Among possible barriers that girls face when engaging
in physical activity and sports are the gender stereotypes
associated with physical activity due to the masculine
image it projects This can lead to a refusal to participate
in“male sports” for parts of the female population [7,8]
Increased difficulty achieving required goals generates
huge pressure for females [9] These gender roles are
as-sumed from an early age [7]
The results from various past studies show that girls tend
to prefer activities related to body shape and health with a
more aesthetic orientation, preferring individual sports,
while boys tend to opt for activities focused on improving
fitness or physical performance, choosing team sports in
which strength and competitiveness predominate [10,11]
Several studies have shown that practice of physical
activ-ity by parents or parental support in this area may improve
physical activity by the children However, the difference
between maternal and paternal influence is not clear In
some studies, it was observed that both figures have equal
influence While in others, it was indicated that the figure
that shares the sex of the schoolchild has more influence,
or that the paternal figure is the most influential [12–15]
Most research on the practice of physical activity by
schoolchildren focuses on time or on active
transporta-tion, ignoring the preferences of children for particular
sports or types of activity Researching these factors
could improve our understanding of the reasons why
they enjoy said preferences [16]
The aim of this study was to determine the differences
in sports preferences of schoolchildren, as well as their
practice of physical activity depending on their sex, in
addition to investigating the influence children’s parents
or guardians in their activeness We analyze all these
factors from a gender perspective
Materials and methods
The study design and methodology have been previously
described [17–19] The study was conducted in
accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Clinic Review of the Clinic San Carlos Hospital, which is part of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Madrid, Spain) (Ref 12/319-E and 15/522-E) The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03465657
In brief, a cross-sectional observational study was car-ried out between February 2014 and February 2018 in
11 randomly contacted schools from different Spanish provinces, with representation from urban and semi-urban areas, in which 367 participated healthy children aged between 7 and 11 years The obtaining of the sam-ple and methodology used to collect the different data is deeply described below
Subjects
Participation in this study was offered to twenty-six randomly-contacted primary schools Eleven schools from six different Spanish provinces (Madrid, Zaragoza, Segovia, Córdoba, Ciudad Real and Tenerife) took part
in the project, of which five were in the capitals of the provinces involved and six in a semi-urban area (less than 50,000 inhabitants) Of the 1806 children who were contacted to participate, a sample of 367 children was recruited to the trial, (182 girls, 185 boys) (Fig.1) Each school was contacted by telephone Once the schools Directors had accepted the invitation to participate, parents
of children aged between 7 and 11 years received a letter explaining the study in detail and were given an informed consent form to fill out, as to whether they agreed with the participation of their child Afterwards, a member of the re-search group met the parents who accepted the participation
of their children in the study at their child’s schools This was to discuss any doubt about the trial and collect the signed informed consent forms In said initial meeting, the member of the research group provides parents with the questionnaires to complete Five days after the meeting, the researchers went to the school to carry out the anthropomet-ric measurements and collect completed questionnaires The exclusion criteria were: a lack of signed informed consent, having an illness or physical impairment that could alter the results (serious infection or metabolic or chronic diseases as diabetes mellitus, hepatic or kidney disease), having have had surgery in the 6 months prior
to the study and lack of completed questionnaires Children whose questionnaires had missing answers for isolated questions were excluded from the analysis of those particular questions but not from the whole study
Anthropometric and Sociodemographic data
All anthropometric measurements were taken in the morning and in accordance with the WHO criteria [20], namely the children being barefoot and wearing just their underwear The children entered in small groups
Trang 3of approximately 5 children into the room where the
measurements were being taken and were measured one
by one in a space separated from the rest of the room by
folding screens by two researchers One of the
re-searchers was in charge of taking the measurements and
the other was in charge of noting the results
Data about weight and height were determined using a
digital electronic scale (range 0.1–150 kg; precision 100
g; Alpha; Seca, Igni, France) and a digital stadiometer
(70–205 cm; 1 mm; Harpenden Pfifter, Carlstadt, NJ,
USA) respectively The body mass index (BMI) was
cal-culated from these measures
Weight status was determined using BMI specific
per-centiles for age and sex in the reference population
fol-lowing the criteria stablished by the International
Obesity Task Force (IOTF) [21]
Waist circumference was measured using a flexible
metallic tape (range 0–150 cm; precision 1 mm; Holtain,
Crymych, Wales) The measurement was taken midway
between the inferior margin of the last rib and the crest
of the ileum, in the horizontal plane
To obtain the sociodemographic data, we used a
ques-tionnaire about their social, economic, and health status
[see Additional File 1], which were completed by their
parents This questionnaire included data on the
chil-dren’s caregivers, including the academic level of their
parents and the household incomes
Physical activity data
An adapted physical activity daily questionnaire [22] [see
Additional File 2], which has been previously used in
other studies [23–25], was filled out by the parents about their children Questions find the time spent dur-ing weekdays and weekends in different kind of physical activities (including active play and extracurricular sport classes, physical education and daily life activities) and sedentary behaviors (including watching TV, playing videogames, tablet or computer use) Furthermore, ques-tions were included about the kinds of sports practiced during extracurricular sporting classes, including the number of days per week and the time per session dedi-cated to each extracurricular sport class
After collecting the information, individual physical activity levels (PAL) were calculated by multiplying the time in hours spent on each group of activities with their assigned coefficient depending on their intensity (1.0 for rest, 1.5 for very low-intensity PA, 2.5 for low-intensity
PA, 5.0 for moderate-intensity PA and 7.0 for very high-intensity PA) following the WHO criteria [26] Addition-ally, the reported mean of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) hours per day was quantified, consider-ing those activities with the assigned factors 5 or 7 [26], which included: physical education in school and extra-curricular physical activities The reported mean of sedentary leisure hours per week was computed, consid-ering the use of electronic displays (computer, video-game console, tablet, and TV) This data was used to estimate adherence to the recommendations of physical activity (≥60 min MVPA per day) and screen time (≤2 h per day) contained in the guidelines [27,28]
We also classified children as non-sedentary when their PAL was 1.4 or higher [29]
Fig 1 Obtaining the sample
Trang 4Statistical analysis
All the results were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Inc
statistical software (version 25.0) and they were shown
as mean ± standard deviation (SD), medians, and
inter-quartile range (IQR) or as proportions if variables were
categorical The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to
assess the normality of the variables To compare data
between sexes, we used the Student’s two sample t-test
(in cases of normal variables), Mann–Whitney U-test (in
cases of non-parametrical variables), andχ2 test for
cat-egorical variables
Subsequently, logistic regression models were used to
analyze the possible association between physical activity
of the children (dependent variable) and the person who
takes care of them (independent variables), using as
ref-erence for physical activity practice: PAL≥1.4, according
to National Academy of Medicine (NAM) cut-off points,
previously known as Institute of Medicine (IOM) [29]
This association was evaluated by 3 models of the odds
ratio (OR) using 95% confidence intervals (CI): (a) a
basic model without any adjustment, (b) a second model
taking into account sex and age, and (c) a third model
including model b plus the rest of the predictor
vari-ables: cared by mother (yes/no), cared by father (yes/no)
or cared by others (yes/no)
Differences were considered statistically significant if
thep-value < 0.05
Results
From the initial sample of 367 children (182 girls and
185 boys), three girls did not answer at least one of the
questionnaires, so the final sample was reduced to 364
children (179 girls and 185 boys)
The mean age of the participants was 8.98 ± 1.21 years
No significant differences between sexes were found
analyzing anthropometric measures and
sociodemo-graphic data collected in Table1
Physical activity and sedentary behavior according to sex
The results of Table 2 show that boys performed more
(p < 0.001) and more intense (p < 0.001) physical activity
than girls, spending more time on attending extracurricular
sport classes (p = 0.001) and on active playing (p = 0.014)
Furthermore, adherence to physical activity guidelines
is also significantly higher in case of boys (42.0% vs
23.46%;p < 0.001) However, males also spent more time
using electronic displays such as PCs, tablets or
video-game consoles (1.01 ± 0.78 h/day vs 0.76 ± 0.58 h/day;
p < 0.001)
Even though no significant differences among sexes
were found related to adherence to sedentary guidelines,
it is important to highlight that adherence to sedentary
behavior recommendation was low (41.95%), with more
than a half of the study population being sedentary
Furthermore, the percentage of the sample that adheres
to physical activity guidelines is also below the half (32.7%), being lower the adherence of girls respect to boys (p < 0.001)
Sports preferences by sex
Figure 2 shows that the most practiced sport was foot-ball (n = 89), followed by dancing (n = 68), water sports (n = 57), and basketball (n = 45) By contrast, the less practiced sports were golf, volleyball, and climbing (n = 2), followed by yoga (n = 4) Comparing preferences by sex, the results showed that girls were more inclined to choose dancing (p < 0.001), rhythm gymnastics (p < 0.001), skating (p = 0.005), and water sports (p = 0.012), while the boys opted for football (p < 0.001), wrestling sports (p < 0.001), racket sports (p = 0.004), and handball (p = 0.020) For the rest of sports, no significant differ-ences were found among sexes
The percentage of non-sedentary boys (PAL≥1.4) was higher than the percentage of non-sedentary girls (82.9%
vs 68.2%;p = 0.001)
Table 3 shows the association between active children (PAL≥1.4) and the sex of the caregiver Children cared
by their father were more likely to engage in physical ac-tivity (OR = 1.995 (1.202–3.310), p = 0.008), which was not seen in those cared by their mother After adjusting for age, sex, and the rest of the predictor variables, this association was also observed in children cared by a per-son different from the father or the mother (OR = 2.222 (1.136–4.343), p = 0.020) However, it was not known if this person was a male or female figure
Discussion
28.02% of the total sample presented overweight and the 10.16% were obese, without significant differences among sexes The percentage of overweight is higher than that in other studies carried out in the Spanish population, such as the ALADINO study, where in a sample of 10,899 children aged between 6 and 9 years, the percentage of overweight and obesity using the IOTF cut-off points was 21.8 and 11.2%, respectively [30] This may be due to the prepubertal adipose rebound previ-ously described by other authors [31,32], as our sample includes children up to 11 years old
In our results, a higher and more intense physical ac-tivity practice by boys than by girls was appreciable, be-ing higher their PAL (1.46 ± 0.07 vs 1.44 ± 0.07;
p < 0.001) the time spent in MVPA (0.90 ± 0.45 h/day vs 0.74 ± 0.40 h/day; p < 0.001) (Table 2) and their adher-ence to physical activity recommendations (42.0% vs 23.46%; p = 0.000),as it occurred in other studies with schoolchildren population, such as the ANIBES study in Spain [33], the Youth Study in China [34] or the study
of Williamson et al performed in England and Scotland
Trang 5Table 1 Anthropometric and sociodemographic data of the study sample according to sex
Girls (n = 179) Boys (n = 185) Total (n = 364) Anthropometric data
Weight status
Sociodemographic data
SD Standard deviation; BMI Body mass index; VT Vocational Training †: p-value calculated by Mann–Whitney U-test
Trang 6[35] A possible explanation to this situation is that
dur-ing school breaks or after-school day care, boys usually
take advantage of this time to practice sports, while girls
use this time in sedentary activities focused on
socialization [36–38] This is reflected, too, in the
differ-ences found among sexes when time dedicated to active
play was analyzed, as boys spent more time on active
play than girls (p = 0.014), which is partly attributable to
the poor distribution of space in school playgrounds or
sports facilities, as it does not take into account different
sporting preferences, to the prejudice of those children
who do not use material like football goal posts or
bas-ketball nets, who are generally girls [37, 39] Related to
these findings, we saw that boys also attended
extracur-ricular sport classes more frequently and for more hours
than girls (2.7 ± 1.6 days/week vs 1.8 ± 1.4 days/week;
p < 0.001 and 0.50 ± 0.36 h/day vs 0.38 ± 0.34 h/day; p =
0.001, respectively) (Table2) These kinds of differences
are similar to those observed in the ALADINO study
[30], where boys also spent more time in the practice of
extracurricular sport activities than girls
The mean time spent in sedentary leisure activities was 2.34 ± 1.08 h by girls and 2.48 ± 1.23 h by boys, being found significant differences between sexes only when time spent using PCs, tablets or game stations was ana-lyzed, being higher the time dedicated by boys to this kind of activity (p < 0.001) Other studies showed this higher time spent by boys in recreational use of com-puters or other electronic devices [40], even though girls usually spent more time in sedentary behaviors [41] Regarding sports preferences collected in Fig 2, the data showed that children tend to choose activities in line with their gender roles, with a higher female partici-pation in sports socially perceived as feminine, like dan-cing (94.1% girls vs 5.9% boys; p < 0.001) or rhythmic gymnastics (93.1% girls vs 6.9% boys; p < 0.001), while males participated more in sports socially perceived as masculine, like football (97.8% boys vs 2.2% girls; p < 0.001) or wrestling sports (85.7% boys vs 14.3% girls;
p < 0.001) [42, 43] Furthermore, girls also participated more than boys in skating (80% girls vs 20% boys; p = 0.005) and water sports (64.9% girls vs 35.1% boys; p =
Table 2 Differences in physical activity practice based on sex
Girls ( n = 179) Boys ( n = 181) Total ( n = 360) Physical activity and sedentary behavior indicators
Mean ± SD Median Mean ± SD Median Mean ± SD Median p
(1.39 –1.48) (1.41 –1.51) (1.40 –1.50)
(0.43 –0.94) (0.57 –1.14) (0.52 –1.07) Attendance at extracurricular sport classes (days/week) ( †) 1.8 ± 1.4 2.0 2.7 ± 1.6 3.0 2.3 ± 1.6 2.0 < 0.001
Time spent in extracurricular sport classes (h/day) ( †) 0.38 ± 0.34 0.29 0.50 ± 0.36 0.43 0.44 ± 0.35 0.36 0.001
(0.14 –0.57) (0.29 –0.71) (0.21 –0.64)
(0.71 –2.07) (1.00 –2.29) (0.91 –2.25) Use of PC/console/tablet (h/day) ( †) 0.76 ± 0.58 0.64 1.01 ± 0.78 0.86 0.88 ± 0.70 0.64 < 0.001
(0.50 –0.93) (0.57 –1.29) (0.50 –1.21)
(1.00 –2.00) (0.93 –1.86) (0.93 –2.00) Sedentary leisure (h/day) ( †) 2.34 ± 1.08 2.21 2.48 ± 1.23 1.64 1.78 ± 0.98 2.21 0.303
(1.71 –2.79) (1.21 –2.29) (1.64 –3.14) Adherence to recommendations
SD Standard deviation; IQR Interquartile range; PAL Physical activity level; MVPA Moderate to vigorous physical activity.
Significant differences according to sex (p < 0.05) are marked as bold.
†: p-value calculated by Mann–Whitney U-test.
Trang 70.012), and boys enrolled more in handball (88.9% boys
vs 11.1% girls; p = 0.02) and racket sports (86.7% boys
vs 13.3% girls;p = 0.004), which is in line with the
litera-ture previously mentioned, where a greater tendency of
boys to practice team sports was reflected in contrast to
girls, who tended to practice individual ones [10,11,44]
These results are similar to those found in other studies
that analyzed children’s sports preferences [16, 45, 46]
and seem to remain true throughout life [47] Sports
segregation according to gender roles may be related to
the fear of being judged or bullied if gender norms are
not conformed to [37, 48] In fact, various articles have
shown that girls are more likely to engage in team sports when other girls are playing but not when boys are play-ing, because boys may exclude girls when they try to participate in sports in which girls are not socially con-sidered good enough [49–51]
Another relevant aspect of this research is the associ-ation between parental care and the practice of physical activity by the child shown in Table3 In relation to this, children are significantly at higher odds of engaging in physical activity when the father takes care of them (p = 0.008), an association not seen in mother care Neverthe-less, disparities have been found in the literature in this Fig 2 Sports preferences depending on sex * p < 0.05 ***p < 0.001 a) p-value represents differences among sexes
Table 3 Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the practice of physical activity (PAL≥1.4) depending on the person in charge
of the child’s care
The father takes care of the child
( n = 185) NoYes 11.918 1.176–3.129 –0.009 11.873 1.140–3.078 –0.013 11.995 1.202–3.310 –0.008 The mother takes care of the child
( n = 332) NoYes 11.615 0.726–3.597 –0.240 11.637 0.725–3.700 –0.236 12.187 0.914–5.231 –0.079 Other person takes care of the child
( n = 89) NoYes 11.420 0.783–2.575 –0.249 11.718 0.929–3.176 –0.084 12.222 1.136–4.343 –0.020
Model 1: Not adjusted; Model 2: Adjusted by sex and age; Model 3: Adjusted by sex, age, and the other predictor variables Significant differences according to sex (p < 0.05) are marked as bold.
Trang 8respect For example, the results described by Rodrigues
et al [15], as well as those described by Fuemmeler et al
[52], showed that children were more likely to engage in
physical activity if both parents or the parent who shared
sex with them was active, whereas other studies revealed
results more similar to those found in our research,
showing a greater relationship between the physical
ac-tivity of the child and the influence of the father [53,54]
This fact reinforces the theory that physical activity is
culturally assumed as a masculine domain However, it
is also important to highlight the positive association
with physical activity practice by children when a person
different from their parents habitually takes care of them
(p = 0.020) Although this finding differs from the
previ-ous literature [55], it can be related to time disposal by
the person in charge of the care of the child, which is
exploited to spend time with the child accompanying
them to the park or in sports practice [56]
Strengths and limitations
The current study is one of the few to analyze the different
sports preferences and parental influence on children
phys-ical activity from a gender perspective However, there are
some limitations One of these limitations is the
cross-sectional design, which does not allow us to make causal
in-ferences on the observed associations As the study could
not be carried out in all the Autonomous Communities
needed, our sample is not a representative sample of the
Spanish population, so the results are not representative of
all the Spanish schoolchildren and they are not applicable to
other age groups Due to this low participation rate, the
sam-ple could be biased to some extent with families specially
in-terested in their children’s health, which can imply higher
physical activity rates than in general population Also, this is
a secondary analysis from the project“Sodium Sources and
Sodium Intake in a Representative Sample of Spanish
Chil-dren”, which was focused on evaluating the sodium intake of
Spanish schoolchildren through 24-h urine samples The
dif-ficulty in the collection of this measure has affected the
par-ticipation in the study, so the final sample was conformed to
the 20.15% of the contacted children Furthermore, we just
had the possibility to use questionnaires to collect physical
activity, instead of another more objective method as
acceler-ometer, which may lead to a bias towards underestimation
or overestimation of the physical activity practice by
school-children Therefore, the true associations could have been
stronger or weaker than the observed associations,
depend-ing on whether the misclassification was differential or
non-differential
Conclusions
The findings of this study indicated that girls practice
less physical activity and less intensely than boys,
engaging more in individual sports with artistic
connotations, while boys engage more in team sports or sports with a high physical contact component
On the other hand, when the father is in charge or takes care of the child, it is more probable that the child will be more physically active, independently of whether
or not the mother is also involved in his or her care Considering all the above, the creation of gender policies which take into account differences in sports preferences could foster the practice of physical activity by children, especially girls, who are actually less favored in this aspect However, other longitudinal or intervention studies should be carried out to analyze whether these differ-ences in sports practice between boys and girls can lead
to differences in the health status of children
Supplementary information
Supplementary information accompanies this paper at https://doi.org/10 1186/s12887-020-02229-z
Additional file 1 Socio-sanitary questionnaire Questionnaire used to obtain data on the children ’s caregivers, including the academic level of their parents and the household incomes.
Additional file 2 Daily physical activity questionnaire Questionnaire used to obtain data on children ’s physical activity, sedentary behavior and extracurricular sport classes.
Abbreviations BMI: Body mass index; CI: Confidence interval; IOM: Institute of Medicine; IQR: Interquartile range; MVPA: Moderate to vigorous physical activity; NAM: National Academy of Medicine; OR: Odds ratio; PAL: Physical activity level; SD: Standard deviation; VT: Vocational training; WHO: World Health Organization
Acknowledgments Authors would like to thank the children and parents who participated in the study, as well as the schools involved for their cooperation during the entire process of data collection.
Authors ’ contributions AP-S participated in research conduction and data collection, analysis and interpretation, as well as in original draft writing and formatting EC-S partici-pated in research conduction and data collection and analysis, as well as in the manuscript reviewing and editing JMP participated in research conduc-tion, data collection and original draft writing and reviewing BN participated
in research conduction, data collection and manuscript reviewing and edit-ing AML-S and RMO participated in research conceptualization and method-ology development, funding acquisition, project administration and provision of study materials, as well as in manuscript reviewing and editing All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding This research was funded by Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), through projects PR6/13 –18866, GR58/08, GR3/14, GR15/17 and UCM Research Group VALORNUT-920030 thorough FEI16/127.
Availability of data and materials The datasets generated and an alysed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions and participant confidentiality but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request Ethics approval and consent to participate
The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Clinic Review
of the Clinic San Carlos Hospital, which is part of the Complutense University
of Madrid (Madrid, Spain) (Ref 12/319-E and 15/522-E) The participation in
Trang 9the study was voluntary and all the participants handed an informed
consent signed by their parents or guardians.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author details
1 Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy at
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain 2 Department of
Nutrition, Faculty of Health Science at Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio,
Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain.3Research Group VALORNUT-UCM
(920030), Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Received: 3 March 2020 Accepted: 29 June 2020
References
1 Perea Sánchez JM, Aparicio Vizuete A, Mascaraque Camino M, Ortega RM.
Physical and sedentary activity as modulating factors of the nutritional
status Nutr Hosp 2015;32(Suppl 1):20 –2 https://doi.org/10.3305/nh.2015.32.
sup1.9473
2 Pardo Arquero V, Jimenez Pavon D, Guillen del Castillo M, Benitez Sillero JD.
Physical activity, fitness and adiposity: immigrants versus Spanish scholars.
Rev Int Med y Ciencias la Act Fis y del Deport 2013;14(54):319 –38.
3 McPherson A, Mackay L, Kunkel J, Duncan S Physical activity, cognition and
academic performance: an analysis of mediating and confounding
relationships in primary school children BMC Public Health 2018;18(1):936.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5863-1
4 Biddle SJH, García Bengoechea E, Wiesner G Sedentary behaviour and
adiposity in youth: a systematic review of reviews and analysis of causality.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2017;14(1):1 –21
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0497-8
5 Forthofer M, Dowda M, O ’Neill JR, et al Effect of child gender and
psychosocial factors on physical activity from fifth to sixth grade J Phys Act
Health 2017;14(12):953 –8 https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2016-0487
6 Moragón-Alcañiz F, Martínez-Bello V Games for Girls and Games for Boys: A
Study of the Representation of Children ’s Games Through Drawing Rev
Educ 2016;40(1):1 –17 https://doi.org/10.15517/revedu.v40i1.17439
7 Corr M, McSharry J, Murtagh EM Adolescent girls ’ perceptions of physical
activity: a systematic review of qualitative studies Am J Health Promot.
2018 https://doi.org/10.1177/0890117118818747
8 Jun J, Kyle GT Gender identity, leisure identity, and leisure participation J
Leis Res 2012;44(3):353 –78 https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2012.11950269
9 Gil-Madrona P, Cachón-Zagalaz J, Diaz-Suarez A, Valdivia-Moral P,
Zagalaz-Sánchez ML Girls also want to play: the joint participation of boys and girls
in physical activities not organised in the school context Movimiento 2014;
20(1):103 –24.
10 Chacón Cuberos R, Muros Molina JJ, Chacón Zagalaz J, Zagalaz Sánchez ML,
Castro Sánchez M, Zurita OF Physical activity, Mediterranean diet, aerobic
capacity and motivational climate towards sport in schoolchildren in the
province of Granada: a model of structural equations Nutr Hosp 2016;35(4):
774 –81 https://doi.org/10.20960/nh.1511
11 Martínez BV Analysis of Body Shapes and Physical Activity Dominant
Patterns in a Coloring Books Collection Pensar en Mov Rev Ciencias del
Ejerc y la Salud 2014;12(1):1 –16 https://doi.org/10.15517/PENSARMOV.V12I1.
12651
12 Schoeppe S, Liersch S, Röbl M, Krauth C, Walter U Mothers and fathers both
matter: the positive influence of parental physical activity modeling on
Children ’s leisure-time physical activity Pediatr Exerc Sci 2016;28(3):466–72.
https://doi.org/10.1123/pes.2015-0236
13 Stearns JA, Rhodes R, Ball GDC, et al A cross-sectional study of the
relationship between parents ’ and children’s physical activity BMC Public
Health 2016;16(1):1129 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3793-3
14 Dominick GM, Saunders R, Kenison K Developing scales to assess parental
instrumental social support and influence on provision of social support for
physical activity in children J Phys Act Health 2016;9(5):706 –17 https://doi.
15 Rodrigues D, Padez C, Machado-Rodrigues AM Active parents, active children: the importance of parental organized physical activity in children ’s extracurricular sport participation J Child Heal Care 2017;22(1):159 –70.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493517741686
16 Resaland GK, Aadland E, Andersen JR, Bartholomew JB, Anderssen SA, Moe
VF Physical activity preferences of 10-year-old children and identified activities with positive and negative associations to cardiorespiratory fitness Acta Paediatr 2018:1 –7 https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.14487
17 Perales-García A, Ortega RM, Urrialde R, López-Sobaler AM Physical activity and sedentary behavior impacts on dietary water intake and hydration status in Spanish schoolchildren: a cross-sectional study PLoS One 2018; 13(12):e0208748 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208748
18 Cuadrado-Soto E, Peral-Suarez Á, Aparicio A, Perea JM, Ortega RM, López-Sobaler AM Sources of dietary sodium in food and beverages consumed
by Spanish schoolchildren between 7 and 11 years old by the degree of processing and the nutritional profile Nutrients 2018;10(12):E1880 https:// doi.org/10.3390/nu10121880
19 Aparicio A, Rodríguez-Rodríguez E, Cuadrado-Soto E, Navia B, López-Sobaler
AM, Ortega RM Estimation of salt intake assessed by urinary excretion of sodium over 24 h in Spanish subjects aged 7 –11 years Eur J Nutr 2017; 56(1):171 –8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-1067-y
20 World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Comitee Physical status: The use and interpretation of anthropometry Geneva; 1995.
21 Cole TJ, Lobstein T Extended international (IOTF) body mass index cut-offs for thinness, overweight and obesity Pediatr Obes 2012;7(4):284 –94 https:// doi.org/10.1111/j.2047-6310.2012.00064.x
22 Ortega RM, López-Sobaler AM, Requejo Marcos AM Cuestionario de actividad física In: Requejo Marcos AM, Ortega Anta RM, editors Nutriguía: manual of clinical nutrition in primary care Madrid: Complutense Publisher; 2006.
23 Ortega RM, Rodríguez-Rodríguez E, Aparicio A, et al Poor zinc status is associated with increased risk of insulin resistance in Spanish children Br J Nutr 2012;107(3):398 –404 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114511003114
24 Rodríguez-Rodríguez E, López-Sobaler AM, Navia B, Andrés P, Jiménez Ortega AI, Ortega RM β-Carotene concentration and its association with inflammatory biomarkers in Spanish schoolchildren Ann Nutr Metab 2017; 71(1 –2):80–7 https://doi.org/10.1159/000479009
25 González-Rodríguez LG, Aparicio A, López-Sobaler AM, Ortega RM Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids intake and dietary sources in a representative sample of Spanish adults Int J Vitam Nutr Res 2013;83(1):36 –47 https://doi org/10.1024/0300-9831/a000143
26 National Research Council Recommended Dietary Allowances 10th ed Washington: The National Academy Press; 1989 https://doi.org/10.17226/
1349
27 World Health Organization (WHO) Global recommendations on physical activity for health Geneva: WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication; 2010.
28 Tremblay MS, LeBlanc AG, Janssen I, et al Canadian sedentary behaviour guidelines for children and youth Appl Physiol Nutr Metab 2011;36(1):59 –
64 https://doi.org/10.1139/H11-012
29 Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IOM) Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids Washintong D.C: The National Academies Press; 2005.
30 Ortega Anta RM, López-Sobaler AM, Aparicio Vizuete A, et al ALADINO study 2015: study of surveillance of growth, diet, physical activity, child development and obesity in Spain 2015 Madrid; 2016.
31 Serra-Majem L, Aranceta Bartrina J, Pérez-Rodrigo C, Ribas-Barba L, Delgado-Rubio A Prevalence and deteminants of obesity in Spanish children and young people Br J Nutr 2006;96(Suppl 1):S67 –72 https://doi.org/10.1079/ BJN20061703
32 Morinigo Isla G, Sánchez Bernal S, Sispanov Pankow V, Brizuela Rivarola M, Rolón Villalba G, Mendoza de Arbo L Nutritional profile of schoolchildren and adolescents in public and private schools, 2013 Pediatría 2015;42(2):
129 –33 https://doi.org/10.18004/ped.2015.agosto.129-133
33 Mielgo-Ayuso J, Aparicio-Ugarriza R, Castillo A, et al Physical activity patterns of the Spanish population are mostly determined by sex and age: findings in the ANIBES study PLoS One 2016;11(2):e0149969 https://doi org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149969
34 Zhu Z, Tang Y, Zhuang J, et al Physical activity, screen viewing time, and overweight/obesity among Chinese children and adolescents: an update from the 2017 physical activity and fitness in China —the youth study BMC
Trang 1035 Williamson C, Kelly P, Strain T Different analysis methods of Scottish and
English child physical activity data explain the majority of the difference
between the national prevalence estimates BMC Public Health 2019;19(1):
171 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6517-7
36 Woods AM, Graber KC, Daum DN, Gentry C Young school Children ’s recess
physical activity: movement patterns and preferences J Teach Phys Educ.
2015;34(3):496 –516 https://doi.org/10.1123/jtpe.2014-0048
37 Martínez-Andrés M, Bartolomé-Gutiérrez R, Rodríguez-Martín B,
Pardo-Guijarro MJ, Martínez-Vizcaíno V “Football is a boys game”: children’s
perceptions about barriers for physical activity during recess time Int J Qual
Stud Health Well-Being 2017;12(1):1379338 https://doi.org/10.1080/
17482631.2017.1379338
38 Pizarro AN, Schipperijn J, Ribeiro JC, Figueiredo A, Mota J, Santos MP.
Gender differences in the domain-specific contributions to MVPA, accessed
by GPS J Phys Act Health 2017;14(6):474 –8 28253072 https://doi.org/10.
1123/jpah.2016-0346
39 Telford RM, Telford RD, Olive LS, Cochrane T, Davey R Why are girls less
physically active than boys? Findings from the LOOK longitudinal study.
PLoS One 2016;11(3):e0150041 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.
0150041
40 Yang F, Helgason AR, Sigfusdottir ID, Kristjansson AL Electronic screen use
and mental well-being of 10-12-year-old children Eur J Pub Health 2013;
23(3):492 –8 https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cks102
41 Aoyama T, Tanaka S, Tanaka M, Okuda M, Inoue S, Tanaka C Association
between age at onset of independent walking and objectively measured
sedentary behavior is mediated by moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in
primary school children PLoS One 2018;13(9):e0204030 https://doi.org/10.
1371/journal.pone.0204030
42 Sobal J, Milgrim M Gendertyping sports: social representations of
masculine, feminine, and neither-gendered sports among US university
students J Gend Stud 2017;28(1):29 –44 https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.
2017.1386094
43 Schmalz DL, Kerstetter DL Girlie girls and manly men: Chidren ’s stigma
consciousness of gender in sports and physical activities J Leis Res 2006;
38(4):536 –57 https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2006.11950091
44 Vandermeerschen H, Vos S, Scheerder J Who ’s joining the club?
Participation of socially vulnerable children and adolescents in
club-organised sports Sport Educ Soc 2015;20(8):941 –58 https://doi.org/10.1080/
13573322.2013.856293
45 Barraco GM, Martínez-Lozano N, Vales-Villamarín C, et al Circadian health
differs between boys and girls as assessed by non-invasive tools in
school-aged children Clin Nutr 2018;38(2):774 –81 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.
2018.03.001
46 National Sports Council of Spain (CSD) Sporting habits of the school
population in Spain Madrid, Spain; 2011.
47 Balish SM, Deaner RO, Rainham D, Blanchard C Sex differences in sport
remain when accounting for countries ’ gender inequality Cross-Cultural
Res 2016;50(5):395 –414 https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397116665815
48 Mayeza E ‘Girls don’t play soccer’: children policing gender on the
playground in a township primary school in South Africa Gend Educ 2017;
29(4):476 –94 https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1187262
49 Paechter C, Clark S Learning gender in primary school playgrounds:
findings from the tomboy identities study Pedagog Cult Soc 2007;15(3):
317 –31 https://doi.org/10.1080/14681360701602224
50 Reimers AK, Schoeppe S, Demetriou Y, Knapp G Physical activity and
outdoor play of children in public playgrounds —do gender and social
environment matter? Int J Environ Res Public Health 2018;15(7) https://doi.
org/10.3390/ijerph15071356
51 Peplak J, Song JH, Colasante T, Malti T “Only you can play with me!”
Children ’s inclusive decision making, reasoning, and emotions based on
peers ’ gender and behavior problems J Exp Child Psychol 2017;162:134–48.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.019
52 Fuemmeler BF, Anderson CB, Mâsse LC Parent-child relationship of directly
measured physical activity Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2011;8:17 https://doi.
org/10.1186/1479-5868-8-17
53 Hesketh KR, Brage S, Cooper C, et al The association between
maternal-child physical activity levels at the transition to formal schooling:
cross-sectional and prospective data from the Southampton Women ’s survey Int
J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2019;16(1):23
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-019-0782-9
54 Johansson E, Mei H, Xiu L, et al Physical activity in young children and their parents-an early STOPP Sweden-China comparison study Sci Rep 2016;6:
29595 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29595
55 Alberdi G, McNamara AE, Lindsay KL, et al The association between childcare and risk of childhood overweight and obesity in children aged 5 years and under: a systematic review Eur J Pediatr 2016;175(10):1277 –94.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-016-2768-9
56 Eli K, Howell K, Fisher PA, Nowicka P A question of balance: explaining differences between parental and grandparental perspectives on preschoolers ’ feeding and physical activity Soc Sci Med 2016;154:28–35.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.02.030
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.